In 1984, four well-known manufacturers of glass containers from Australia, Canada, Japan and the USA (ACI, Portion, Nihon Yamamura, Brockway) as well as a manufacturer of container forming equipment, Emhart, founded the research and development partnership IPGR (International Partners in Glass Research). Almost one year later, Wiegand-Glas, Germany, and Rockware Glass, UK, were invited to add their interest and expertise to this worldwide research consortium.

 

One aim of IPGR is to strengthen glass and to minimize these weaknesses in order to be able to offer lighter and even stronger glass packaging to all consumers worldwide. The goal of the first 5 years of IPGR was to develop containers with significantly increased strength. Basic research was done and the association spent 1.75 Mill. USD per year for these basic research projects with considerable results.

Since IPGR was founded members and projects changed. Portion (Consumer Glass) does not exist anymore. ACI and Brockway were bought by Owens Illinois and subsequently decided to terminate their membership. Since Jan. 1, 2000 IPGR is an association based in Switzerland operating under Swiss law.

 

New members since 2000 are:

• Gallo Glass, USA (2001)
• Vidrala SA., Spain (2001)
• Vetropack, Switzerland (2003)
• Sisecam, Turkey (2007)